1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heating resistor element component (thermal head) which is used in a thermal printer often mounted to a portable information equipment terminal typified by a compact hand-held terminal, and which is used to perform printing on a thermal recording medium based on printing data with the aid of selective driving of a plurality of heating elements, and to a manufacturing method for the heating resistor element.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, thermal printers have been widely used in portable information equipment terminals. The portable information equipment terminals are driven by a battery, which leads to strong demands for electric power saving of the thermal printers. Accordingly, there have been growing demands for thermal heads having high heating efficiency.
As a thermal head having high heating efficiency, one which has a structure disclosed, for example, in Patent Document (Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. Sho 61-201836) is known.
However, in the thermal head disclosed in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, cylindrical spacers are arranged directly below a heating portion (which is a portion of a resistor that actually heats and that is not overlapped with a conductor). Therefore, there is a problem that the heat generated in the heating portion escapes to a side of a ceramic substrate through the intermediation of the spacers which line-contact a glaze layer and the ceramic substrate, thereby deteriorating the heating efficiency.
Further, in the thermal head disclosed in above-mentioned Patent Document 1, the spacers are interposed in a scattered state (that is, state of being nonuniformly arranged). Therefore, there is a problem that diffusion of heat to the side of the ceramic substrate becomes nonuniform, to thereby deteriorate printing quality.
Further, in the thermal head disclosed in above-mentioned Patent Document 1, the spacers are interposed in the scattered state. Therefore, there is a risk that the spacers move when a distance between the glaze layer and the ceramic substrate is increased during use, thereby causing a problem that the spacers enter a state of being more nonuniformly arranged as time passes, and the printing quality is further deteriorated.